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Everything posted by HarmonicGenerator

@Onyx2 Is the title of this thread supposed to fit the melody of Supercalafragilisticexpialidocious?
”Bombastic Thurman Bob Sparky Plug Sparkplug Hardcore Holly,
Later joined by cousins Crash and then by Mighty Molly,
If you put him over then he’ll appear quite jolly,
Bombastic Thurman Bob Sparky Plug Sparkplug Hardcore Holly!
um alabamaslamma umdiddle-aye...”

It's just a week away, so let's talk about it.
Wikipedia says the (jam-packed) card is currently:
Brock Lesnar vs Finn Balor - Universal TItle
Daniel Bryan vs AJ Styles - WWE Title
Ronda Rousey vs Sasha Banks - Raw Women's Title
Asuka vs Becky Lynch - SmackDown Women's Title
The Bar vs Miz & Shane McMahon - SmackDown Tag Titles
Rusev vs Shinsuke Nakamura - US Title
Buddy Murphy vs Kalisto vs Hideo Itami vs Akira Tozawa - Cruiserweight Title
And the two Royal Rumble matches.
There are currently 18 confirmed entrants to the Men's Rumble:
Rey Mysterio
Andrade
Mustafa Ali
Samoa Joe
Jeff Hardy
All three of the New Day
R-Truth (entering number 30)
Apollo Crews
Jinder Mahal
Baron Corbin
Elias
Dean Ambrose
Bobby Lashley
Seth Rollins
Drew McIntyre
John Cena
And 15 confirmed entrants for the Women's Rumble:
The Iiconics
Naoma
Zelina Vega
Sonya Deville
Mandy Rose
Carmella (entering number 30)
Mickie James
The Riott Squad
Bayley
Natalya
Ember Moon.
Putting aside the wondering about how they're going to fit all that into one show without it lasting two days, it looks a good card. All four main title matches could be excellent, and even if the Rumbles are disappointing, it's still the Rumble so I'll still enjoy them as they go on.
What are people's predictions?
I can't see any of the main titles changing hands but Miz and Shane have a shout at becoming tag champs.
For the Women's Rumble I can't see a clear winner unless Becky loses against Asuka, then enters and wins, and I'm also not sure how they'll pad out the other half of the entrants. They're overused the nostalgia returns in last year's match and then Evolution, and the alternative's packing it with everyone from NXT/NXT UK.
I'd expect some of Bray Wyatt, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn to come back from injury in the men's match, and maybe an NXTer or two - Black, Dream, maybe Ricochet. Wouldn't be that surprised if Pete Dunne went in. Would quite like Miz to be entered in the match, but be sore after the Tag Title match, so Shane nicks his spot a la Crown Jewel - leading to jealousy, leading to their Mania match. Expecting a Rollins win (unless they announce Braun and he wins back the title shot he shouldn't have lost, and they can then call him a Rumble winner without having to acknowledge Saudi) but definitely a Raw winner because Smackers did it last year.

Yeah, I meant that more kind of self-referential chant where it's less an organic supporting your favourite / annoying the bad guy thing and more about being 'part of the show' for lack of a better phrase; the kind of chanting that puts the chanters at a remove from the action, and that the people in the match can't really feed off. It was there in ECW but I'm sure I don't remember that kind of fan activity being such a dominant part of WWE shows until the past couple of years.

I dunno, before his injury in early 03 he was definitely being positioned as a top guy on SmackDown, and this is at a time when they had Lesnar, Undertaker, Angle, Triple H and RVD full time, and on-and-off Michaels, Rock, Austin and Hogan still about. Even in 2001 you could make a case that big things were starting to align for him before the Invasion shifted all priorities. Sure, maybe he wouldn't have been near the world title picture in 98/99 but then barely anybody who wasn't Austin, Rock or Undertaker was.

Edge is one of my all-time favourites - the only time I wasn’t keen was his face run on Raw when he came back from injury on 04 and got the dreaded post-Mania-Kane-feud - but it’s an interesting argument. What was his lasting impact, or legacy?
You could make a case for him being a big part of why Money In The Bank and cash-ins have become such an institution. While it’s true that the last two cash-ins have been busts (Corbin lost, Strowman’s went to a no contest somehow), they still rely on it so strongly because Edge got so over with it the first time.
He might have been inconsequential in the grand scheme of things (or not), but whenever he turns up in something I’m watching on the Network I remember how good he was and how much I enjoy his stuff.

My favourite Holly look was just after he’d stopped teaming with Crash and had sky blue shorts. I know this is no different to his other looks at the time but it was a good colour.
I remember all the reports online around the time of the Cappotelli incident. Couldn’t imagine that sort of thing going on at the Performance Centre.
Favourite Holly match is probably him and RVD on ECW in autumn 06, where he tore his back open. Really good match. He also gave JBL the most tolerable match of his title reign (and possibly the only one that didn’t end in a non-finish because nobody could believe Bradshaw would be able to beat anyone else clean) when they had a weapons match on SmackDown in autumn 04.
Best dropkick in the business, then, now, forever.

I just watched last year’s Royal Rumble as part of my ‘watch a few across January to hype myself up’ tradition. It’s a great match. Crowd’s loud throughout, it never gets dull, the surprises are great, there’s some great moments and interactions, it’s well paced, a really strong final four... If they can match it this year it’ll be a good Rumble.
edit: I’d totally forgotten about the Ziggler ‘retirement’ angle though.

I present a nomination for the coelacanth, which everybody thought went extinct 66 million years ago, until someone caught one off the coast of South Africa in the 30s.
Been around longer than the dinosaurs, these guys.

205 Live's recently shifted to Tuesday nights on the Network, the second timeslot shift it's had in the past few months. This is by no means an indication that it's on its way out, but imagine if it was. Imagine they've given up on the division and the show completely. What would you do with the Cruiserweight division roster?
Who would you put on Raw, SmackDown or any of the other brands, and who would you bin off?
Discounting Mustafa Ali, who's now just a Smackers guy, and LHP, Lio Rush and Drake Maverick who all show up on Raw, this is the roster:
Akira Tozawa
Ariya Daivari
Brian Kendrick
Buddy Murphy
Cedric Alexander
Drew Gulak
Hideo Itami
Humberto Carrillo
Jack Gallagher
Maria and Mike Kanellis
Noam Dar
TJP
Tony Nese
I've watched every episode of 205 Live, but looking at that list, there's not many I'd keep. Buddy Murphy should already be on SmackDown with the US Title, I'd keep Gulak around somewhere, and I'd shift Gallagher and Dar to NXT UK, but I wouldn't miss anyone else there. Maybe hang onto Kendrick just long enough to do an angle with Daniel Bryan.
Who would you keep?

Your list above will do you well!
I would add:
- Randy Orton vs Jeff Hardy from Hell in a Cell. One of my favourite matches of last year
- The second UKCT from Royal Albert Hall. Second night better than the first.
- Any episode of 205 Live where Buddy Murphy has a match (see also his hometown match at Super Showdown)
- Any Ronda Rousey PPV match.
For specific NXT episodes, they’re all of a decent standard so none particularly come to mind except maybe if you missed the Ricochet-Velveteen Dream confrontation in early summer, and the one main evented by Moustache Mountain vs Undisputed Era.

Highlight this week: the HEIGHT Montez Ford got on that Frog Splash!
Also worth noting: them getting Deuce and Domino’s outfits out of storage for Metro Brothers. And the fact that you can already tell the War Raiders’ Viking thing is not getting translated well when they move up to mains.
Lowlight this week: Dijakovic and Jaoude did not seem to be on the same wavelength at all for me. Very underwhelming. And I really hoped this would be the week Keith Lee clicked for me... but nope. Still not seeing it.

I remember being amazed at the time that a film about wrestling was getting Oscar buzz, and was disappointed when Sean Penn won over Rourke (this was before I'd even seen the film). I missed it in cinemas so bought a steelbook DVD which I may or may not still have, but like you, I've only seen it the once. Other than the buzz and the apparent Rourke resurgence that helped get him on Iron Man 2 and a WrestleMania payday, I don't recall much about the film - Necro Butcher and Ernest Miller were both in it, he worked in a supermarket as a day job, and I remember the ending, which I thought was appropriate. It'd be interesting to watch it alongside Fighting With My Family when that comes out.
Best thing to result from the film was the Springsteen song. Lovely piece of work.
I suppose inadvertently if Rourke was meant to do a Mania match with Jericho but pulled out (don't know full story), it's thanks to The Wrestler that we got Steamboat's return to the ring in 2009?

Your next test, then, is to try and do it with only one winning entry in there - you've got 9 winners in that list. That's the part I struggled with - so often the winner has the most memorable match compared to everyone else, so picking just one is tricky!